Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today congratulated Queensland’s newest world champion as the state celebrated a massive windfall from the Battle of Brisbane. The Premier said Jeff Horn – a school teacher from Acacia Ridge – defeated boxing legend Manny Pacquiao to claim the WBO Welterweight world championship.
“Jeff has done this in front of more than 51,000 fans at Suncorp Stadium and an estimated TV audience of 500 million in what was the biggest fight in Australian history,” Ms. Palaszczuk commented “We backed this fight because we knew it had the potential to bring thousands of international and interstate tourists to Queensland. Not only did we see our local hero win the world title, Brisbane hotels were more than 90 percent full, close to 20,000 tickets were sold to international and interstate visitors and the weekend delivered a $25 million boost to our economy. The Battle of Brisbane delivered a massive win-win for Queensland.”
The Premier went on to point out that A sporting event of this size is the perfect warm-up for what is to come – the Bledisloe Cup in October, the Rugby League World Cup final in December and of course, the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April next year. Our major events program injects $600 million into our economy. That’s good news for Queensland businesses and Queensland jobs.
Tourism and Major Events Minister Kate Jones said the sporting spectacle of the Battle of Brisbane would not be forgotten. “Jeff now stands as a world champion boxer having defeated one of the greatest fighters of all time in Manny Pacquiao,” Ms. Jones commented “We are all proud of his achievement and we wish Jeff all the best as he celebrates his famous victory and prepares for the next step in his career. This event also provided a unique platform to showcase the best of Queensland to the world and inspire visitors to experience the best address on earth.”
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said Brisbane congratulated Jeff Horn on his victory and the city’s economy would also benefit from the massive worldwide publicity generated from hosting this major event. “Jeff is now a world champion and I am proud that this humble boxer from Brisbane has made history and had such a great victory,” Lord Mayor Quirk commented “Not only did Brisbane successfully stage the biggest boxing match in Australian history, our New World City was showcased as a destination of choice to a global audience of hundreds of millions.”
Duco Events’ Dean Lonergan said the event had exceeded expectations in every way. “2 July will go down in history as the day a new Australian sporting superstar was born,” Mr. Lonergan commented “Everything about this event has exceeded our expectations and it has been such a privilege to bring this event to the people of Queensland and Australia. Congratulations to Manny, but as Jeff’s promoters, we want to say how proud we are of him and how he performed today. Jeff rose above huge expectation and handled himself with huge professionalism and pride.” Lonergan added.